Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function

In at least some circumstances, biodiversity affects various ecosystem functions and the ways in which ecosystems respond to disturbance. Because these interactions occur at many spatial and temporal scales and throughout all levels of biological organization, it is difficult to decide where to focus attention on interactions between biodiversity and ecosystem function. The loci for initial attention is important for setting research priorities to understand these interactions further, for organizing known information to instruct the development of natural resource policies, and for identifying biodiversity conservation priorities. Holling (1992) argues that ecosystem behavior can be understood from a few dominating ecological processes that structure the ecosystem. In the temporal dimension, these key structuring processes dictate a few dominant temporal frequencies that drive other processes. Thus, the most effective strategy for studying interactions between biodiversity and ecosystem function is to focus on the key structuring processes at intermediate scales of space and time. Thereafter, other ecological conditions signify situations in which the interactions between biodiversity and ecosystem function are particularly strong: early to midsuccessional status, low soil fertility, intermediate levels of disturbance, biotic interactions only where there is collaborative indication of importance, invading species that differ significantly from native species in resource acquisition or utilization, and ecotones.